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By the time they were finished, the United States likely knew Venezuelan radar network better then the Venezuelans themselves did. With their knowledge of the radar system, the US probably could have flown the Goodyear blimp into Caracas if the fancy struck.
Intelligence is vital for preparation and the Navy EA-18s were vital for gathering said intelligence.
https://x.com/thegeneralboard/status/2007918142304010609

Nayib Bukele @nayibbukele - It’s striking how armchair experts rush to conclusions after looking at only a tiny slice of the data. A bit more context would significantly improve their “analysis.”
El Salvador has historically had an extraordinarily high murder rate. This began during the civil war in the 1980s and never truly ended afterward, with extreme spikes in the mid 1990s and again in 2015–2016. However, the mean, and even the least violent years, remained consistently comparable to that of an active war zone (graph 1).
The last year that was unaffected by our government’s anti-gang crackdown was 2018. In 2019, our administration took office, and the Territorial Control Plan was launched on June 20, 2019. That is why a sharp and sustained decline in murders becomes visible starting in July 2019 (graph 2).
The murder rate continued to fall throughout 2020 and 2021 (graph 3). However, it was not until the full-scale offensive against the gangs and the State of Exception in 2022 that crime dropped to levels consistent with a safe country (graph 3).
By 2023, El Salvador had become safer than the United States (graph 3), and by 2024, safer than Canada. In 2025, the murder rate fell by an additional 30%, now lower than many European countries.
Importantly, not only is the murder rate now extremely low, but its composition has also changed. Approximately 90% of cases now stem from domestic violence or fights between friends involving alcohol. These are the most difficult types of crimes to prevent (you cannot place a police officer in every home).
And even then, the country now achieves a total resolution and conviction rate (graph 4), which will drive the numbers even lower.
This is why there are no longer unsafe areas anywhere in the country. It is also why crimes like extortion, which once affected roughly 80% of Salvadorans, have nearly disappeared. The few remaining cases are largely limited to scams or the possession of intimate information or images.
In other words, we went from the Murder Capital of the World to the safest country in the Western Hemisphere, and we are on our way to becoming the safest country in the world.
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Geoff Shullenberger @g_shullenberger
This widely shared chart of El Salvador’s declining homicide rate doesn’t quite tell the story you think it does. As you can see, most of the decline was achieved *before* Bukele became president in 2019, and almost all of it before he declared a state of exception in 2022./1